Iced Earth founder Jon Schaffer was arrested on January 17 in his home state of Indiana after appearing on the FBI’s Most Wanted list following the guitarist’s participation in the pro-Trump uprising on the US Capitol on 6 January. he cited the six federal charges he now faces and new photos show that he was carrying a bear spray inside the government building.
The United States Department of Justice has a public page that details the arrests made so far in connection with the Capitol riot, for which President Donald Trump was impeached for the second historic time, this time for “inciting insurrection.”
The page indicates that an arrest was made by Jon Ryan Schaffer in the southern district of Indiana, where a ‘criminal complaint’ form (United States of America v. Jon Ryan Schaffer, seen below) and a ‘statement of facts’ sheet were made available too.
Part of the ‘fact statement’ document provides additional photos of the founder of Iced Earth inside the Capitol during the time of the turmoil, equipped with ‘bear spray’ in his hand and seen among protesters who were unloading the spray.
The claim is as follows:
Schaffer was among the protesters who sprayed US Capitol police officers with ‘bear spray’, a form of capsaicin pepper spray sold by many street retailers, as part of his efforts to push officers back into the Capitol and break into the Capitol building. Schaffer was photographed and captured in a surveillance video with “bear spray” and engaging in verbal altercations with Capitol police inside the Capitol building. Schaffer is seen holding transparent sunglasses in one photograph and bear spray in other photographs.
The six federal charges listed against Schaffer are:
– Intentionally entering or staying in any building or restricted land without legal authority
– Disrupt the orderly conduct of government affairs
– Consciously engages in an act of physical violence against any person or property in any building or restricted land
– Violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building
– Get involved in an Act of Physical Violence in a Capitol
– Parade, demonstration or picket in a Capitol building
Schaffer’s photo on Capitol Hill that was widely publicized (seen at the top of the page) shows him wearing a blue sweatshirt, black fingerless gloves and a hat that says “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member”. The Oath Keepers is an extreme right-wing anti-government militia organization that was formed in 2009.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that regularly identifies hate groups and other domestic threats to civility, said the following from the Oath Keepers:
Oath Keepers, which claims tens of thousands of former law enforcement officers and military veterans as members, is one of the largest radical anti-government groups in the United States today. While it claims to be only defending the constitution, the entire organization is based on a set of unfounded conspiracy theories about the federal government’s work to destroy Americans’ freedoms.
Prior to the January 6 events, Schaffer attended a pro-Trump rally in Washington DC on November 15, eight days after the presidential race was called up for Joe Biden. While there, he gave a video interview to the German media Die Welt, detailing why he was there and his thoughts on the potential for violence at the rally.
The complete transcript of the posted interview (via Blabbermouth) was reproduced in full below.
My name is Jon Schaffer. I’m from Indiana.
A group of bandits and criminals kidnapped this country a long time ago. Now they are taking a big step, and that is not going to happen. That’s right. These are globalists. These are the scum of the earth. These are the criminals who are behind all the fraudulent cash fees, are behind all wars, are behind all the shit, are behind divide-and-conquer tactics, behind racial division. It’s all nonsense, everything rubbish.
People need to wake up and leave the matrix, because they are falling. They made the move. They are messing with the wrong people here – believe me. And we needed it to be opened that way – open fraud, open theft. Because now we see you, and you will fall. Mark my words.
If anyone wants to bring violence, I think many of us here are ready for that. We don’t want that, but if they do, we’ll respond to that – trust me.
I think that goes beyond President Trump. President Trump is a populist. He’s not the typical Republican. It is not the establishment. He is not going to start wars everywhere, as they do. Which is funny – where are all the Democrats who went against the war?
There is so much hatred for Trump, it is just ridiculous. He’s been dealing with a criminal mafia that’s been in the shadows ruling the world, frankly, for a long time. They want to destroy our entire sovereignty and create a global government.
We are not having this. We can still do business together, countries can still be at peace, but we are not going to merge into some globalist communist system. This will not happen. There will be a lot of blood spilled, if any – trust me.
The American people will not accept this bullshit – once they understand what is really going on. So, this is where we are. Nobody wants that, but they are pushing us to a point where we have no choice.
We will continue to update this story as more information becomes available.